Alabama national title named state story of year

Nick Saban and Alabama's second national title in three years was picked as the AP state sports story of the year.

Dave Hyatt | Gadsden Times | File

By JOHN ZENORAssociated Press

Published: Thursday, December 27, 2012 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, December 27, 2012 at 11:25 p.m.

It has become a familiar way to break in a new year for football teams from the state of Alabama.

This time it was the Alabama Crimson Tide shutting out LSU in New Orleans for the BCS national title in January to bring a football-shaped crystal trophy home to the state for the third straight year.

The Tide's second national championship in three years — sandwiching Auburn's own BCS triumph — is the Associated Press's choice for the state's top sports story of 2012 even as Bama is gearing up for a run at another one.

But that's for next year's list.

Coach Nick Saban and Alabama certainly seem to have the preparation plan down going into the Jan. 7 meeting with No. 1 Notre Dame in Miami.

“We're doing the exact same thing I'm pretty sure, day for day, as we did last year,” Tide defensive lineman Jesse Williams said.

It worked well then with the Tide beating LSU 21-0 in a rematch of the team's lone regular season loss.

Other top stories in 2012 included Auburn's woes during a 3-9 season (No. 2) that culminated in Gene Chizik's firing and the hiring of former offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn (No. 3) to try to lift the program back up the Southeastern Conference ranks.

While the state's two most prominent athletic programs dominated the headlines in 2012, there were some notable coaching changes at UAB (No. 9) and schools like Jacksonville State, Samford and North Alabama (No. 10).

The big one came in the Big Easy just nine days into 2012, though.

The Tide and the college football world have moved on, but it's never too late for a brief look back.

Alabama's defense — which would send three first-rounders into the subsequent NFL draft, plus No. 35 pick Courtney Upshaw — held LSU to just 92 yards and five first downs. It was the first shutout in the BCS' 14-year history. LSU didn't cross midfield until there were less than 8 minutes remaining in the game, and the next morning Saban admitted he probably enjoyed this one more than the Tide's first BCS title game win over Texas two years earlier.

“To be honest with you, I think I maybe did,” he said then. “This team was a special team, not that the 2009 team was any different. It's certainly an honor and privilege to be with a group that made the kind of commitment that you look for from a competitive character standpoint.”

Turns out the 2012 team made a pretty strong commitment, too.

Alabama is 12-1 with only a loss to No. 10 Texas A&M marring a season that was highlighted by dramatic comeback wins over No. 6 Georgia and No. 9 LSU.

The Tide is in familiar territory with some veterans having been around for two previous national title teams.

Linebacker Nico Johnson believes that experience helps in the weeks leading up to the championship.

“I don’t think we have that much anxiety about the game,” Johnson said. “We’ll be able to treat it as another game and go in calm and focused in more on what we have to do. I think we understand what we have to do to win the national championship and we’re going to have to do it even more than the first two times so I mean, Notre Dame is a dang good team and we’re going to have to play our butts off for 60 minutes.”

If the Tide wins, most of the players already know the drill. Tight end Michael Williams said Saban made sure the focus turned quickly to the next season.

“I think we have a meeting a week after the game or something like that,” Williams said. “Then you realize real quick that that team hasn’t done anything yet.”

AP Top 10 State Stories

The Top 10 sports stories in the state of Alabama for 2012, as chosen by the Associated Press:

1. TIDE’S TITLES: Alabama is still rolling. The Crimson Tide opened the year by winning its second national title in three seasons with a 21-0 victory over LSU in New Orleans, and is aiming for another against Notre Dame on Jan. 7 in Miami. This time Bama already has won the Southeastern Conference championship.

2. AUBURN’S WOES: Two years removed from a national title, the Tigers plummeted to 3-9 and didn’t win a Southeastern Conference game in the program’s worst season in six decades. Coach Gene Chizik was fired the day after the season ended.

3. MALZAHN HIRED: Auburn turned to former offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn on Dec. 4, giving him a five-year contract worth $2.3 million annually to right the program after getting one season’s worth of college head coaching experience at Arkansas State.

4. IRON BOWL ROUT: One team headed for another national title shot, the other bound for an offseason of rebuilding. The result was Alabama’s 49-0 victory over Auburn in the most lopsided Iron Bowl in 64 years. Only the Tide’s 55-0 victory in 1948 had a bigger margin.

5. TITLE TOWN: Football wasn’t the only Bama sport claiming national titles. The Tide also won in softball, women’s golf and gymnastics — the most in any calendar year for the athletic program even without the football title from the 2011 season. It was the first women’s golf title and the softball program’s first in eight trips to the Women’s College World Series. Sarah Patterson’s gymnastics team has won two in a row and six overall.

6. AND THE WINNER IS...: Alabama’s football program raked the awards in. Barrett Jones — a former Outland Trophy winner — won the Rimington Award as the nation’s best center. He also won the William V. Campbell Trophy as the top scholar-athlete in college football. Jones, guard Chance Warmack, cornerback Dee Milliner and linebacker C.J. Mosley were all first-team AP All-Americans.

7. BACK TO TOURNAMENT: Anthony Grant’s Alabama team ended a six-year NCAA tournament drought. The Tide lost 58-57 to Creighton in the first round after Josh Jones blocked Trevor Releford’s 3-point attempt as the clock expired.

8. UAB-HAASE: The Blazers turned the basketball program over to North Carolina assistant and former Kansas player Jerod Haase in March, replacing Mike Davis and trying to restore the program to its days as regular NCAA tournament participants.

9. OLYMPIC MEDALS: Ex-Alabama runner Kirani James (Grenada) won the 400-meter gold medal while former Auburn swimmers Tyler McGill and Eric Shanteau were part of the winning 4x100 medley relay team. Auburn athletes collected six medals.

10. SMALL COLLEGE SWITCHES: Some of the big moves included Jacksonville State firing football coach Jack Crowe after 13 seasons and hiring South Alabama defensive coordinator Bill Clark. Samford fired men’s basketball coach Jimmy Tillette and hired Bennie Seltzer. Bobby Wallace returned in January to North Alabama, where he won three Division II football titles in the 1990s. South Alabama men’s basketball coach Ronnie Arrow retired 10 games into the current season.

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